Sarah Carter — Crush of the Day

Canadian actress Sarah Carter plays a tough and resolute sci-fi action hero on the Steven Spielberg-produced alien invasion drama 'Falling Skies,' which returned to the tube for its second season Sunday night on TNT.

We like to think that Carter's 'Falling Skies' character, Margaret, is somewhat inspired by another strong apocalypse-fighting pop culture character, Sarah Connor from the 'Terminator' film series. Margaret is a lot like Sarah Connor, except she’s blonder and younger and perhaps slightly less … insane.

Carter is no stranger to genre film and TV fans. She played a popular recurring character on 'Smallville' a few years back, and she co-starred in the short-lived genre series 'Wolf Lake' and 'Dark Angel.' The 31-year-old actress also appeared in the horror flick 'Final Destination 2' and 'DOA: Dead or Alive,' the movie adaptation of video game of the same name.

We find Carter’s wounded tough girl act and sexy smirking on ‘Falling Skies’ irresistible. She remains one of the best reasons to watch the show (well, her and the fact that the summer TV season has pretty much come to a grinding halt recently, leaving us TV nerds with fewer quality cable shows to choose from). So if tough, hot, alien ass-kicking chicks are your thing, then you know what to do: Check out Carter on ‘Falling Skies’ on Sunday nights.